Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was accused of "looking not spirited, warm and original as usual but sullen, teenaged and at a loss" by Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan in her observation of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address last night.
And good natured with the white jackets, who I see some on twitter are calling the straight jackets. AOC had a rare… https://t.co/I2cQXDfGck— Peggy Noonan (@Peggy Noonan) 1549423517.0
Ocasio-Cortez soon responded.
"Tonight was an unsettling night for our country. The president failed to offer any plan, any vision at all, for our future," she wrote. "We’re flying without a pilot. And I‘m not here to comfort anyone about that fact."
Why should I be “spirited and warm” for this embarrassment of a #SOTU? Tonight was an unsettling night for our cou… https://t.co/hqkj7gbcdH— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1549430941.0
It's true that Ocasio-Cortez, one of the president's more prominent critics, did not applaud him during a speech that has been described as both "unrepentant" and "defiant."
NO SMILING. NO CLAPPING. NO OVATION. AN AMERICAN HERO. https://t.co/dHw2IHQWkd— Ξvan Ross Katz (@Ξvan Ross Katz) 1549420703.0
Many took Ocasio-Cortez's side over Noonan's.
@Peggynoonannyc It wasn't a coming out party, Peggy.— Margaret Tuberose (@Margaret Tuberose) 1549431032.0
@Peggynoonannyc Unlike AOC, your bad nights aren’t rare.— The Hoarse Whisperer (@The Hoarse Whisperer) 1549431632.0
@Peggynoonannyc When you have so completely lost touch not only with the times but the moment, it is time to stop w… https://t.co/mPb908pPyk— David Rothkopf (@David Rothkopf) 1549458930.0
@Peggynoonannyc Drives you nuts how beloved @AOC is, and how forgotten you are She's the future, a woman with guts… https://t.co/KwrrqSH3uo— Amy Holden Jones (@Amy Holden Jones) 1549433207.0
The self-described democratic socialist Ocasio-Cortez has made regular headlines for her disavowals of the president.
Ahead of the State of the Union address, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted out a CNN story on "what to watch" on the State of the Union address, adding "none of it." (She did not elaborate further.)
None of it https://t.co/k2SY2NnTpB— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1549377300.0
"The president was unprepared. I don't think that he did his homework," she told MSNBC afterward.
.@AOC says Trump was unprepared and had no plan for the #SOTU. https://t.co/wzJEnpWLkN— Sarah Reese Jones (@Sarah Reese Jones) 1549429216.0
"We've seen State of the Union address delivered by many presidents, Democrat and Republican," she continued. "They almost always have substantive policies that are offered. I agree with Senator [Amy] Klobuchar that there was no plan. There was no plan to address our opioid crisis. There was no plan to address the cost of health care, there was no plan to increase wages. It was... I had to ask myself: 'Is this a campaign stop or is this the State of the Union?"
Noonan, the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, called the president's speech a "deeply adept" one that "cut to the muscle on legal and illegal immigration, on abortion and infanticide, on foreign wars."
This has been a deeply adept speech in terms of policy. He cut to the muscle on legal and illegal immigration, on… https://t.co/awjObMq0da— Peggy Noonan (@Peggy Noonan) 1549423255.0
Since her days as a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, Noonan has established herself as a prominent voice within the center-right. She has, however, criticized Trump on several occasions, particularly recently, when she, in one of her columns, called for an end to the "stupid" recent government shutdown that kicked off after the president declined to sign a stopgap funding bill that would have averted one because he and Congress reached a stalemate over funding for his border wall project.
Noonan's praise for the president's "deeply adept" speech runs counter to some of her past criticisms, particularly that he "talks too much."
Trump "obscures and steps on and makes not-obvious anything good that is happening, he thinks his constant communication is his power," Noonan said last year.
"Instead, I think his constant need to talk and tweet and be in your face is, in fact, his weakness, but he cannot stop. He doesn't have enough self-discipline to hold himself back and let events unfold in an interesting way."